Half Life 2 Mod Idea Thread

Hey guys, Kerian here. I've been thinking about this for a long time and with Steam's recent reveal about supporting paying mods in the future I finally decided it would be cool to go forward with it. I'm going to try and finally make a Source mod, probably for Half Life 2, with the intent of making it as stand alone as possible without going so far as to make a completely separate game. It's an idea that will probably not be worked on until well in the future after I've messed around with Source and learned how to properly work with it, but I wanted to throw it out there to see what people think.

I'm a really big fan of sci-fi horror. The idea of a group of average Joe's and Jane's going out and about on a routine/exploration mission in uncharted territory only to run across something completely out of the ordinary has always fascinated me. Books like Jurassic Park and other Michael Crichton novels, movies like Alien and Pandorum, games like Doom, the Half Life Series, and Dead Space; I have a special love for all of these. Friends of mine have jokingly claimed that I have a "Space Hulk" fetish whenever we discuss anything Warhammer 40K related, and they aren't far off from the truth.

This mod will definitely be Sci-fi horror. I have a number of different concepts in mind for it, most (if not all) taking place in relatively the same universe. I am tied between three particular concepts, each of them having various degrees of difficulty in setting up (part of the reason why I don't intend to work on it until I have a couple of other source mods under my belt first). I would particularly enjoy feedback on each of these, as even though I fully intend to do 'something' with all of them (if not a Source mod then definitely some kind of story...maybe even an SFM feature film if I can get the people for it) I will likely choose to fully work on the concept that people enjoy the most first.

So, the first concept takes place closer to home. Essentially, in the relatively near future, a corporation working with the US military (sound familiar?) is working on secretive projects while in a secret base in the middle of the South Dakota badlands. When funding goes dry, they turn to several independent groups for help, including the Mexican Mafia, but then suddenly all contact with their base is lost. The Mafia (and surprisingly the US military) wind up sending in hit teams to try and recover their losses. You, the main character, wake up in cryo during the joint hit operation, and are taken into custody as US property due to a lack of name or identification or even memory (as like in any good Source game, the main character is surprisingly rather mute). When the army runs into the organized mafia, there is a firefight, but then something happens; power in the facility diverts into one of the chambers, opening up several contained chambers previously left locked and opening a portal through time. Essentially, the company had been experimenting with time travel, developing specialized portals that go back and forth into alternate timelines via portals referred to as 'Threads.' However, due to the raid the portal bringing the team back cuts off more power than usual, and many of the reactors are about to go critical as saved portals are opened and threads start to come online. The player ends up having to try and find a way to restore power and shut the threads off while fighting strange creatures throughout time and space, including (but not limited to) dinosaurs, mutated creatures from the future, aliens, and the like.

The second concept takes place in the future, on one of our planets in the solar system (depending on the story, the planet will vary, but I mostly want it to take place on either Mars, Saturn, or Jupiter's moon Europa). A corporation under government contract has established a research facility and colony on one of these three worlds, with the joint purpose of mining materials and researching into private and government projects such as artificial intelligence and other sorts. The main character arrives for two purposes; the first is to get a job, as he is an engineer, but the second and more secretive one is to look for his girlfriend, who had been an employee who went missing for months and Private Investigators had been thwarted right and left. As the main character goes through his daily, and dangerous, routine job something happens to the facility, and everything goes dark. The main character discovers that one of the projects has gotten loose (or that a rogue probe has brought back a toxin or an infection back) and it has affected the other workers. In order to call for help or get a rescue ship out, he has to reroute power and try to survive for as long as he can. (depending on what world I choose the project and danger will vary. The one on Mars will take a more or less Doom-style approach and involve faster than light portal travel that goes wrong. The one on Europa will involve a derelict alien spacecraft on the bottom of Europa's massive ocean. The one on Saturn will involve a probe on a return trip from Eris, one of the planetoids in deep orbit around our sun.)

The final concept will be much more like Dead Space/Space Hulk in style. Taking place in the much further future, a long and bloody civil war resulting in the establishment of two different nations has all but crippled the human race and they are attempting to return to otherwise broken colonies to rebuild and recover. As they do, they discover various ships used in the conflict, which had been left derelict as a result of long voyages in uncharted territory for the war. With vital technology that could potentially aid in the recovery of both nations left aboard, the idea of making a profit off of salvaging these ships quickly goes rampant throughout the colonies, creating specialized salvage crews that make livings off of acquiring ship technology and selling it either directly to colonies/nations or on the black market. Your ship goes on a routine run when it discovers a particularly BIG capital ship derelict, and knowing the risk your crew decides to salvage what they can before bigger companies can make a claim or before the military seizes the ship. When you get on board, however, you discover that the ship's crew are very much alive...and that generations of isolation have bred them into monsters. That, combined with the military experiments aboard the vessel, make the derelict all the harder to recover or justify its worth.

So, what do you guys think? Like I said, depending on the response I will inevitably pick one of these concepts as a long-term source mod to work on in the future. These aren't things that I intend to start right away; I fully intend to get at least a year or two's worth of experience with the Source Engine first. They may even have to wait until after the arrival of Source 2. But I definitely intend to do something with them; even if they never become games, perhaps a novel or two might be around the corner for 'em.

Any feedback is appreciated.

-Kerian

I know your only conceptualizing at this point. But I would hold off. I think Gabe is going to flip on this "Pay for Mods" idea. Not very supported by people who have dedicated their resources to the public for free only to see some 13 year old selling his work as an asset.....

Besides legal complications of who deserves the money.

Which sucks because I really enjoyed mapping for HL2 Mods..........

Personally I hope he doesn't. Gabe's mistake was announcing it for a game like Skyrim, which had a presence on the steam workshop but a very specific presence. I feel like what it could have been and what the announcement went for are two different things. They should have approached it in the sense of making either standalone mods or expansion packs, such as for example adding Wyrmstooth into the game or the Sea Monsters mod and making all the bugs ironed out on a professional level. Making it so that your had to purchase money for weapons, which beforehand were free to begin with, was a pretty dumb idea.

I'll still probably work on it anyway. Given the success previously of Source mods like Black Mesa the chance of making money off of a mod of source is higher than that of any of the Elder Scrolls games. In any case, I won't start off with the idea of making money off of it; this is a catalyst that, hopefully, will help give me the umph necessary to mess with the Source Engine so that I actually 'can' make something and maybe make money off of it in the future. I keep no delusions of making money off of a mod of a game.

Oh, I'm down with people making money off their own work. It's people re-packaging work and selling it as their own that's a huge problem with the amount of free resources there are out there. Besides the fact that Mod Leaders can acquire assets of their team - boot them and make money off the profits without sharing.

I hope you do continue to make your mod. Survival Horror is a great Genre and I also love your 2nd concept. If I had to choose another it would be your 3rd Concept.

Not long ago I wrote a story that I left Unfinished, mainly about someone born on a moon colony who was a second class citizen(Literally) and was just about to go to Earth for the first time........ When all hell breaks loose.

So I'm really in favor of any of the directions you take it. Great detail in your original post btw.

Edited by: ChrisCobay

Yeah, that makes sense. I suppose though that what I am thinking of and what actually is are two different things. I'm thinking of making a mod and releasing it on Steam like Black Mesa and some of the purchasable mods for Portal 2. But the risks that you mentioned are very real. I will have to keep them in mind.

*nods* I hope so too. I already have an idea for a starting mod that I can work on as a little practice project; something that will use just HL2's assets that I can post here and work on by myself just to learn to code and practice some important skills before taking it up a notch in a bigger project. Given that I haven't figured out how to really mess with Hammer yet, I've decided that I can work on level design and other things using Sketchup until I'm ready for the real deal.

Glad you like 'em. There needs to be more of those classic survival horror and classic shooter games out there. Give me a copy of HL2 over a copy of CoD's single player any day. And like I said, the concepts that people are less in favor for I still want to work with, just probably not as a mod or a game. So thanks!

No problem, if you need any tips on using The Hammer, let me know. I've spent a couple hundred hours in it at least........ sad I know.

Edited by: ChrisCobay